Focus

In Wealthy Germany, the Church Should Become Poor!

Never before his third voyage to his native land had Benedict XVI given such powerful emphasis to the ideal of a Church poor in structures, in possessions, in power. At the same time, however, he insisted on the need for a vigorous "public presence" of this same Church. Is it possible to have both at once?

by Sandro Magister

ROME, September 28, 2011 – The impact of Benedict XVI's third voyage to Germany, as has happened with his other voyages in the past, has again dispelled the clouds that overshadowed its preparation.

The criticisms, even the most hostile, have been superseded by widespread acclaim, in a generally favorable climate.

The speech to the Bundestag on Thursday, September 22 immediately brought to the center of respectful attention the thought of pope Joseph Ratzinger on the natural and rational foundations of the liberal state: a nature and a reason animated by the Creator Spirit of God.

Together with the lecture in Regensburg in 2006, and the one at the Collège des Bernardins in Paris in 2008, this one, in Berlin in 2011, completed a trilogy that acts as a manifesto of the entire pontificate: centered on the fertile relationship between the Jerusalem of divine revelation, the Athens of philosophical reason, and the Rome of juridical thought, and on an original and positive reinterpretation of the values of the Enlightenment.

Another powerful moment of Benedict XVI's voyage to Germany was his meeting in Erfurt with the Churches born from the Lutheran Reformation.

The pope did not recall Martin Luther's acts of rupture with the Church of Rome, but his dramatic and incessant search for a God capable of mercy for a humanity profoundly marked by evil and sin.

"Luther’s burning question must once more, doubtless in a new form, become our question too," Benedict XVI said. Outlining in this way an ecumenical path that is not a short-term bargaining tactic, nor a watering down of the faith in order to draw near to the world, but a revisiting of the essential questions of Christianity, the only ones on account of which the Churches have reason to be and, together, to speak to men.

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But the speeches of Benedict XVI that will prompt the most discussion are perhaps the ones that he addressed to Catholics in Germany, and, through them, to Western Catholicism as a whole.

In a Germany marked, not only among the Protestants but also among the Catholics, by persistent anti-Roman sentiments and by recurrent pressures for disciplinary and practical reforms – like the abolition of clerical celibacy, priesthood for women, communion for the divorced and remarried, the "democratic" election of bishops – Benedict XVI did not in any way give in to these demands, or even mention them, but rather obliged everyone, including those who make them, to consider the seriousness of what is at stake.

The German Catholic Church – the pope pointed out – is a "superbly organized" force. Even the reforms that are constantly solicited belong to this structural environment. "But behind the structures," the pope asked, "is there also a corresponding spiritual strength, the strength of faith in the living God?"

For Benedict XVI, "we have more than enough by way of structure but not enough by way of Spirit." Because "the real crisis facing the Church in the western world is a crisis of faith." And therefore "If we do not find a way of genuinely renewing our faith, all structural reform will remain ineffective."

Here the pope was speaking to the Council of the Central Committee of German Catholics, but he also said similar things in the homily at the Mass celebrated in Freiburg on Sunday, September 25, and at the following meeting with Catholics "active in the Church and society."

Instead of reforms of institutions and structures, which for him would be a sterile accomodation of the Church to the world, Benedict XVI preached an interior, spiritual reform, centered on that supreme "scandal" of the cross "which cannot be eliminated unless one were to eliminate Christianity itself": a scandal unfortunately "overshadowed in recent times by other painful scandals on the part of the preachers of the faith" stained with sexual abuse against minors.

The pope cautioned against an exclusively individual faith, restricted to the private sphere. He insisted on the indissoluble bond that unites each Christian with the next, in the universal Church.

But he also outlined the future, in Germany and in the West, made up not of great masses of faithful, but of "small communities of believers," which he has called on other occasions "creative minorities," capable, in a pluralistic society, of "[making] others curious to seek the light."

To these restless seekers of light, in the homily of the Mass celebrated in Freiburg, the pope even gave precedence "in the kingdom of God" with respect to believers by habit:

"Agnostics, who are constantly exercised by the question of God, those who long for a pure heart but suffer on account of their sin, are closer to the Kingdom of God than believers whose life of faith is 'routine' and who regard the Church merely as an institution, without letting it touch their hearts, or letting the faith touch their hearts."

Not only that. In his speech to Catholics active in the Church and society, Benedict XVI called for a purification of the Church, not only from the "excesses" of its organizational structures, but also from wealth and power in general, from its "material and political burdens." He recalled that this was the case in the Old Testament for the priestly tribe of Levi, which did not possess an earthly inheritance, but "only God himself, his word and his signs."

Joseph Ratzinger has always balanced these kinds of statements with others that are complementary. And he did so this time as well.

For example, with regard to the "faithful by routine" preceded in the kingdom of God by the agnostics who seek God, it must be noted that in another moment of his voyage – at the vigil with young people – the pope reiterated that all of the baptized, even the most lukewarm and habitual, are nonetheless called "saints" by the apostle Paul: and not because they are good and perfect, but because they are all loved by God and called by him to be sanctified.

And with regard to a Church stripped of possessions and earthly powers, it must be noted that Benedict XVI also insisted several times in Germany on the need for a vigorous "public presence" of this same Church, unimaginable without a material "body" to substantiate faith with works.

But the fact remains that never before this voyage had Benedict XVI insisted so emphatically on the spiritual element. Never had he given such prominence to the ideal of a Church poor in structures, in possessions, in power.

But at the same time, never before his speech to the Bundestag had Pope Benedict so vigorously asserted Christianity as being the foundation of the juridical culture of the West, and of all humanity. And the Church as being the great defender of this civilization today, in an age that has lost sight of its foundations.

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The program and the complete texts of the speeches and homilies of Benedict XVI's voyage: